Heavy Duty Trucking, January 2018

JANUARY 2018 HDT 47 WWW TRUCKINGINFO COMages without regionalization There are simply not enough drivers to sustain the long haul model She said pay increases for drivers are now averaging 1 to 2 cents per mile but in some cases pay hikes are heading up into the range of 4 to 7 cents per mile Changes in pay are weighted to region and experience now Its no longer one or the other Shaver also explained that fleets are offering referral bonuses more often These can net a driver 3000 or more just for referring an applicant plus extra mileage pay for three months to a year In addition she said fleets are still serving up sign on bonuses Some are real eye trends coupled with the rising tide of freight will sharply push up driver pay and benefits Things are getting so tight that even private fleets are feeling the squeeze Klemp said that while private fleets tend to recruit from a more experienced driver pool and lure drivers away from for hire carriers its no longer a cake walk for them Now there are advertisements consistently announcing first year wages of around 50000 even sometimes 70000 Theyre having a difficult time finding the drivers they want the pool is diminishing The job and pay package has been completely re engineered over the last decade Shaver said It is now rare to see pay packSo dont expect that raising driver pay will be a short term phenomenon for long haul fleets Feeling the squeeze According to Gordon Klemp president and CEO of the National Transportation Institute which tracks driver wage trends across all trucking segments the pay of a unionized truck driver in 1979 would be the equivalent of 101600 in 2016 Yet NTI data shows a similar driver in 2016 earned just 52406 Klemp made that telling point in a November conference call hosted by Stifel Capital Markets He and NTI COO Leah Shaver explained that economic and demographic Truckload carrier CFI has launched an Experienced Driver pay package that compresses the years it takes for a driver to reach the top per mile rate PHOTO CFI

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